Early life Fretwell was born in
Scunthorpe, England on 10 November 1981. He discovered the music of
Bob Dylan at a young age in the form of the ''
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits'' record which he found in a bargain bin. Fretwell attended St. Augustine Webster Primary School in
Scunthorpe and St. Bede's Catholic School in
Ashby before furthering his study at
John Leggott College. It was in his teenage years that he started his first band, named Label. After moving to
Manchester to attend
Salford University, to study English, but dropped out within a few days, he started to earn notices in
NME and
Q. During this period songs such as "Emily" and "What's That You Say Little Girl?" were first written.
2002–2006: 8 Songs and Magpie Fretwell decided to stay in
Manchester permanently, later releasing
8 Songs which he released on Northern Ambition, a label owned by a friend. It peaked at No. 27 in the
UK Albums Chart in August 2005. The first single taken from the album was "Run" and was subsequently followed by "Emily" (2005) and the
Four Letter Words EP. "Emily" reached No. 42 in the
UK Singles Chart in August 2005. His version of
Jeff Buckley's "Morning Theft" appeared on the 2005 tribute album
Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley. His song Play featured in the 2005
Dominic Savage film
Love + Hate.
Cameron Crowe is a fan of Fretwell's work, Crowe encouraged Fretwell to write songs for the film
Elizabethtown (2005) and even sent Fretwell his own personal copy of the
Easy Rider soundtrack as a gift. His song "Bad Bad You, Bad Bad Me" was featured in an episode of the
ABC family drama
Brothers & Sisters called "
The Missionary Imposition".
2007–2012: Man on the Roof and the Last Shadow Puppets He released a single called "Scar" on 3 September 2007, which was included on his album
Man on the Roof. This album was recorded in New York City, released by
Fiction Records on 10 September 2007, and featured
James Iha. Also contributing to the album were fellow Manchester artists
Elbow,
Badly Drawn Boy, and
Cherry Ghost.In 2012, he quit music to focus on his family.
2021–present: Returning to music and Busy Guy On 1 March 2021, Fretwell released the single "Oval" after a 13-year hiatus and announced the album
Busy Guy, released on cult indie record label
Speedy Wunderground owned by friend
Dan Carey, who also produced the record. The album released to critical acclaim, with
Far Out praising the "cycle of colour songs that fill up the second half of the LP" and
Beats Per Minute calling it a "delicately sincere and softly stark album". ==Discography==